New Century Sax Quartet comes to Troy

Yet another quartet is coming to town Saturday night for a concert presented by the Friends of Chamber Music in Troy. What’s different about this group? They play saxophones, not strings.

Though they perform a family of instruments more associated with jazz or blues, the New Century Saxophone Quartet is very much of the classical tradition. The group shot to prominence in 1992 when they won first place in the Young Concert Artists Guild Competition, a prestigious award usually associated with pianists and string quartets.

“We work just as hard as string players and we’re preaching the gospel that saxophones can be just as expressive,” says Drew Hays, who plays baritone in the group. “People often say they didn’t know what to expect, and they didn’t know you could play saxophones make such a homogeneous sound. But we think a lot about matching line and colors and timbre.”

“The problem,” adds Hayes, “is the lack of repertoire.”

That’s because it was only in 1846 that Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone. That’s relatively late in the history of instruments and so the body of music written for them is relatively small and, in fact, is still being built. “He intended the saxophone to be a classical instrument, but by the 1840s or 1850s the orchestra was pretty much a done deal,” explains Hays.

In order to sustain its musical life, the New Century has commissioned new works and also staked its claim on masterpieces of the past. An example of the latter is “The Art of the Fugue,” by J.S. Bach. Several movements of it (in an arrangement) will be included on Saturday’s program.

“We play it with no vibrato and with no single instrument sticking out,” says Hayes. “The tone has to be the same throughout, as if on an organ where you’d have one amazing, cohesive voice.”

Bach on saxophones may seem a surprising mix. But to Hayes, Bach is good for every instrument and every musician.

“Everybody plays Bach. I’ve heard it on guitar and banjo and harmonica. His music is so strong and sturdy. It’s about being a musician, not about the instrument,” says Hayes. “He’s changed the way we play other music and it changes the way we listen to each other. It opens up your ears.”

Speaking of open ears, bring some to Saturday’s concert because the rest of the program is wide ranging, even if it focuses on more recent works. Along with Bernstein’s popular Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story,” there will be two pieces written specifically for the New Century.

In David Culter’s “Songs for the Weekend Traveler,” each of the four movements spotlights a different member of the group and focuses on his favorite kind of music. According to Hayes, the musical journey includes New Orleans jazz for the baritone, Scottish ballads for the tenor, Bulgarian dances for the soprano and Cuban music for the alto.

Also in store is a set of pieces by Michael Torke, a composer already well known to local audiences because of his extensive work with conductor David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The set, titled “May, June, and July,” dates from 2010 but it’s actually an expansion of an earlier work, “July,” written in the mid-90s. The quartet liked that original piece so much they approached Torke for something bigger.

“It would seem to be a challenge to expand an earlier piece, but it sounds like the same composer, just with some new ideas,” explains Hayes, who describes the style as “driving minimalism.”

With such a broad mix in one concert, the question of whether this sax quartet is, in fact, a mainstream classical ensemble will be left for the audience to decide. But Hayes believes the group is holding true to themselves as artists and to the beauty of their instruments.

“We’ve always said that we’re musicians who happen to play the saxophone,” says Hayes, “and I think that’s what Adolph Sax would have wanted.”

Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer in Troy and can be reached at Dalton@HudsonSounds.org.